The Donabedian family are Armenian Christians living in the Ottoman Empire. "Like Water on Stone" follows the lives of the three youngest children, twins Shahen and Sosi and baby Mariam. Shahen dreams of moving to America with his uncle. Sosi is content with life in Palu and wants to marry Vahan, a young Armenian clockmaker. Curious young Mariam is learning to write with the help of her doting older brother.
It is 1915, and war is coming to the region. There has always been tension between the Armenians, the Kurds and the Turks, but it heightens as the Ottoman Empire starts to crumble. Papa believes his friends will protect him and violence will never come to their town. He is proved wrong when soldiers take his two oldest sons away. Then, one night, violence erupts in Palu.
Mama and Papa choose to send their three youngest children into the mountains to safety. Shahen, Sosi and Mariam run by night and sleep during the day. They survive on what little food their mother sent with them. Shahen tries to protect his sisters from the truth of what has happened in Palu, but the violent evidence is all around them. Along the way they are shadowed by Ardziv, an eagle whose feather they are carrying. He looks after the children and protects them along their journey.
This is a heart-breaking story told in lovely free verse. The term "genocide" was coined to refer to the Armenian holocaust. I was not that familiar with this history, but author Dana Walrath's note lets the reader know approximately three-quarters of the Armenian people, 1.5 million, died during the genocide. Shahen, Sosi and Mariam were among the lucky few who survived.
Walrath does not pull any punches with the horror of this story. There is hatred and death and evil, but there is also hope - hope that a part of a family's story will survive even if it is just through a cooking pot and an eagle's feather. The sparse language of the free verse allows the reader to observe the horror from above through the eyes of Ardziv, and to experience the hardship and humanity that Shahen, Sosi and Mariam encounter. It is a brutally honest, beautifully told story of a horrible period in history when a people were almost wiped out.
If you enjoy "Like Water on Stone," you might also try "The Red Pencil" by Andrea Davis Pinkney and "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys.
Angie Bayne is the children's services manager at Missouri River Regional Library.